Hi -- I'm 70+ years old and am just getting into DE shaving. I've used Norelco electric shavers for many years and then got back to a blade a couple years ago. Generally I used a three blade cartridge. Then I started reading about wet shaving with a DE. I tried it a couple of times and cut myself up terribly -- my face looked like I'd lost a battle with a weed eater.
But then I read an article about how you can't learn to bowl by doing it just three times...and I thought, "Well, I'll give it another try." Last Monday I watch the old Spencer Tracey movie "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner", and in one scene Spencer Tracey was shaving with a DE razor. I thought, "If he can do it, I can learn how to do it. So, for the past two days I have shaved with a Gillette TTO DE made in 1953 (when I was 10 years old) that I bought on eBay, and I've done pretty well. Shaving slowly and carefully, I've had no bleeding. At this point, my shave isn't as close as with a three-blade cartridge, but I suppose that will come with practice.
So, I've signed on to this thread...and I'll keep trying.
Paul

It sounds like you're on the right track. Look at the help forums here and, please, don't be afraid to ask for advice and help, no matter how basic you may think the question. You never know when someone may be wondering the same thing.

(01-23-2015, 03:28 PM)RevPaulDD Wrote: Hi -- I'm 70+ years old and am just getting into DE shaving.

Welcome, youngster. (closing in on 73 here)

Quote:I've used Norelco electric shavers for many years and then got back to a blade a couple years ago. Generally I used a three blade cartridge.

So, for the past two days I have shaved with a Gillette TTO DE made in 1953 (when I was 10 years old) that I bought on eBay, and I've done pretty well. Shaving slowly and carefully, I've had no bleeding. At this point, my shave isn't as close as with a three-blade cartridge, but I suppose that will come with practice.

You will not necessarily get a closer shave with a DE than with a cartridge. I shaved for four and a half decades with cartridges (just about all of that time, whipping upo a lather with a real, serious, brush from purpose-made shaving soaps), but the past nine months I have been engaged in an extended trial (56 premium -- Gillette Silver Blue, Super Iridium, and KAI -- blades, at about six shaves per blade, until they are used up) of DE shaving, using a Standard Razors razor. The best shaves I get from the DE razor equal, but do not beat, the best shaves that I get from a Schick Hydro 3 cartridge razor. (But the DE is more fun.) And I have not yet been able to equal with a DE the shaves that I have achieved with a Feather MR3 neo cartridge razor.

Personally, I am fully convinced that attention to beard prep completely swamps differences in hardware. A well-prepped beard will get mowed down just as well with a cartridge as with a good DE razor, and a poorly prepared beard will have problems with any kind of razor. But DE razors indisputably are more fun.